Teatime (brillig)

Alright, it’s time for a real world guest appearance. I am exceedingly unhappy. As it often does, my misery has seeds in prior joy–here, in the infuser my mom gave me for Christmas. It should be evident from this that I have a weakness for tea, especially looseleaf blends. Not that I don’t admire Twinings and Celestial Seasonings for their fantastic bagged teas, but tea bags were an accident. Tea is supposed to be brewed loose. When trading companies began sending samples overseas, however, they packaged them in small cloth bags, and the recievers often brewed the tea in these. So was the convenience born, and there are now some excellent teas available only bagged. I highly recommend Welsh breakfast.

Back to the infuser (and if I have my tea history wrong, please let me know). It was wonderful! I could now make some of my favorite teas by pot or cup without the mess gumming up the spout or drain. At home, of course, we have strainers, but in a dorm room, time, space, and sinks are at a premium. So, for the first week of classes, life was blissful. No stress, no dehydration, no antioxidant-deprived moments.

Familiar as the cliched “all good things must come to an end” is, though, I was not expecting it to be so abrupt. Today, alas, my infuser died. It was quite sudden; two solderings corroded and sprang apart, rendering it unusable. No more imperial green or “iron goddess of mercy” for me, I guess, although the pearls and assam should still work. What really smarts is that I could fix it if I were home, where I have plenty of wire and a soldering iron handy. Can’t think why that wasn’t on my packing list…

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2 Responses to “Teatime (brillig)”

The Crate and Barrel accessible via the Metrolink has a nice big infuser ball that works quite well (and doesn’t leave too many leaves in the bottom of one’s cup) for a pretty reasonable price (though what that price is currently escapes me). If you time it right, you might even have a nice cup of tea ready to go just in time for those slithy toves (whose gyring and gimbling really can be quelled with a decent Earl Grey).